Chapter Summaries

Pomona and Severus discussed how Roosevelt used the Fireside Chats to earn public trust and how Hermione could use Potterwatch to advocate for House-elves. The conversation ended with the newlyweds sharing a drink and affectionately dismissing Mary’s fate.

• Pomona enjoyed Severus’s mojitos as he explained how Roosevelt used radio chats and lending programs to guide Americans through the Depression and support Britain.
• Pomona suggested Hermione work with Lee Jordan and Potterwatch, and Severus advised that she draw on her adventures with Harry Potter to build credibility and listen to the public’s concerns about House-elves.
• Severus reflected on Hitler’s rhetoric and argued that people needed to feel heard, while Pomona joked about his old reputation as a strict teacher.
• Pomona praised Severus for his insight and good taste in marrying her, and he kissed her before condemning Mary’s choices.
• Pomona put Mary out of her mind and continued drinking cocktails with her newlywed husband.

Pomona recruited Justin Finch-Fletchley for an operation to protect Chinatown from possible werewolf attacks, then asked him to mediate a dispute with a real estate company if he survived. She Apparated to Harry's empty childhood home on Privet Drive and reflected on kindness, power, and the burdens women faced.

• Pomona discussed Justin's fir wand and his courage at Hogwarts, then asked him to join the Lantern Festival operation because werewolves might attack Chinatown.
• Pomona told Justin that, if he survived, she wanted him to mediate the conflict between Roswell Real Estate Company and Chinatown's residents.
• Justin joked about deliberately Splinching off his thumb to reverse his bad luck, and Pomona wished him good luck before Apparating away.
• Pomona Apparated to the empty house on Privet Drive where Harry had lived and felt protected by Lily's lingering charm.
• Pomona reflected on women, power, and historical figures including Wu Zetian before lamenting that she was a woman.

Pomona returned home to find Hongmen men delivering silver to Severus for metric-caliber werewolf bullets, while Severus argued that the Chinese would fiercely resist an attack on Chinatown. She tried to calm his anger and left him softened by her embrace and song.

• Pomona found more than a dozen men in black outside her apartment, but a refined man led them away before she went inside.
• Pomona discovered silver bricks covering the living room floor, and Severus explained that the Hongmen wanted metric-caliber bullets.
• Severus warned that the werewolves should not attack Chinatown and said Remus's son should stay out of the wizarding world.
• Severus recited Hitler's speech and declared that he would never answer insults with mere protest.
• Pomona embraced Severus, urged him to love people, and hummed a song to lift his spirits.

Pomona reflected on how generalization, fear, propaganda, and social pressure shaped people’s judgments and behavior, drawing parallels between wizarding prejudice and historical events. She ended by warning that a society without a sense of crisis could drift toward collapse, though people were not simply like mice.

• Pomona worried that the Carrow siblings’ radical views could influence Severus and considered how prejudice against Death Eaters could spread to all Slytherins.
• Pomona explained the Little Albert experiment, in which conditioning made a child fear white, furry things and showed how people generalized fear from one example to an entire group.
• Pomona connected fear and parental pressure to Draco and Barty Crouch Jr., and described how Emperor Xuanzong’s domination damaged his relationship with Emperor Suzong.
• Pomona considered how propaganda and unforeseen crises had shaped events, from the return of Voldemort to revolutions and food shortages.
• Pomona warned that people might accept drugs just to fit in and compared a society without a sense of crisis to Mouse Utopia.

Pomona reflected on power, money, public responsibility, and the consequences of self-serving choices, using historical examples and a parable about a reformed sheep thief. She concluded that people’s decisions determined their paths and that hidden truths would eventually be judged.

• Pomona compared Kong Rong’s conduct and opposition to Cao Cao’s grain-saving alcohol ban, arguing that Kong Rong ignored the starving people and acted for political advantage.
• Pomona criticized leaders and wealthy people who abused power or hoarded money, citing examples from British diplomacy, Tang China, Buddhism, and the Old Summer Palace.
• Pomona recounted a parable in which one branded sheep thief fled while the other spent his life helping villagers until they mistook his mark for the letters meaning “saint.”
• Pomona contrasted Kong Rong with Cao Cao and described how Cao Cao’s affair with Zhang Xiu’s widowed aunt led to rebellion and the deaths of Cao Anmin, Dian Wei, and Cao Ang.
• Pomona concluded that hidden truths would eventually be judged and that people’s choices, rather than luck, determined their fate.

Pomona comforted Severus as he confessed his fear, jealousy, and exhaustion, while she asked him to protect Justin Finch-Fletchley during the coming operation. They reconciled through a kiss, and Pomona reflected on love and Severus’s role as an unpredictable variable in the course of fate.

• Pomona brought Butterbeer to Severus while he worked on Wolfsbane bullets, then asked him for flowers and peace between everyone.
• Pomona told Severus that Justin Finch-Fletchley would accompany him on the operation and that he had to keep Justin safe.
• Severus asked whether Pomona worried about him, and she promised she would not leave him even if he became a werewolf.
• Severus admitted that he felt responsible for Pomona, could not bear to see her with someone else, and was tired of carrying on.
• Severus accused Pomona of rejecting and refusing to sympathize with him, and she embraced and kissed him.
• Pomona reflected that love could sustain people and considered Severus an unpredictable variable in fate.

The chapter traces Britain's financial crises from Newton's reform of the Royal Mint through the South Sea Bubble and the rise of the East India Company, then connects those events to modern Britain and the wizarding world. It ends with financial predators arriving as Britain faces the Accionites' theft of the Royal Mint's gold.

• Newton improved the Royal Mint, completed the recoinage, and pursued William Chaloner, who was executed in 1699.
• The South Sea Company used false promises of trade with Spain to drive up its shares, then collapsed, ruining investors and exposing widespread political corruption.
• The East India Company gained credibility through the silver-dollar indemnity China paid under the Treaty of Nanking, while Britain profited from the Opium Wars.
• Accionites stole the Royal Mint's gold as America struggled with the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, and the Muggle Prime Minister grew furious.
• Kingsley renewed the plan for a new wizard prison after the Azkaban breakout, and the chapter warned that financial predators had arrived in Britain.

Pomona reviewed how Britain used debt, rumors, and political interference to gain control of the Suez Canal, then reflected on how weak nations were exploited and how China had responded to foreign pressure. She put the file away, concluding that Lucius would be difficult to handle and that Draco was too soft-hearted for the family business.

• The chapter recounted how Britain obstructed France’s Suez Canal plans, manipulated Egyptian politics, and helped leave Egypt burdened with debt and forced labor.
• After the canal opened, Egypt pledged its stake to Britain and France, and Britain gained control of Egypt’s finances before the canal was nationalized in 1956.
• The chapter compared Egypt’s losses and the Qing Dynasty’s debts with China’s refusal to honor old debts and its development of nuclear weapons.
• Pomona returned the file to its drawer and recognized that Lucius, the albino snake, would not be easy to deal with.
• Pomona thought Draco was better suited to work at St Mungo’s than inherit the family business, despite his Death Eater mark.

Pomona and Severus shopped at the Poirot Market, where Severus kissed her and persuaded her to eat expensive Gillardeau oysters. As Pomona swallowed the oysters with guilt, she reflected on the gold rush, financial crises, and the costs of prosperity.

• Pomona spotted Gillardeau oysters, and Severus kissed her before haggling with the vendor.
• Pomona considered the oysters’ price and recalled the fate of Jules and the family who mistook him for a wealthy relative.
• Pomona reflected on the California Gold Rush and how prospectors’ greed and violence ruined lives and depleted native oysters.
• Pomona traced the American Panic of 1837 to banking policies, speculation, and the collapse of credit.
• Pomona linked later economic crises to the Soviet Union’s dissolution and Japan’s decline, then accepted and ate an oyster to please Severus.

Pomona reflected on poverty, history, responsibility, and Hufflepuff while walking with Severus through Poirot Market. After a painful argument about fairness and her role as Head of House, they reconciled and headed to a Spanish paella stall.

• Pomona worried that Severus might become ruthless now that Dumbledore and the Dark Lord were gone and he had grown accustomed to luxury.
• Severus asked why Pomona was unhappy, and she explained that she felt guilty about enjoying something too luxurious.
• Pomona challenged Severus to define a person, then argued that responsibility to society should be part of the definition.
• Severus accused Pomona of dwelling on Cedric and questioned whether she deserved to be Head of House, making her cry as she mourned Cedric.
• Severus told Pomona she was a better teacher than he was, and they discussed Marcus's crimes and whether criminals counted as people.
• Severus pinched Pomona's nose, took her hand, and walked with her toward the Spanish paella stall.

The chapter recounts the Panama Canal company’s fraudulent fundraising and collapse, then explains why Lucius Malfoy avoids risky American real estate and stockpiles silver at Gringotts. It leaves Pomona and Severus joking together while news of piracy and a volcanic eruption plays in the background.

• Ferdinand de Lesseps raised vast sums for the Panama Canal through bribery and false progress reports, and the company eventually went bankrupt, ruining shareholders.
• Lucius Malfoy avoided America’s increasingly risky housing market and began storing silver at Gringotts as a safer investment and wartime resource.
• Severus explained Lucius’s financial plans to Pomona after she snooped through his documents.
• Pomona and Severus discussed money and the Somali pirates’ attacks on ships before he playfully slapped her.
• A television report covered a recent volcanic eruption in the Philippines, which was too small to affect global weather.

Severus reflected on the risks of storing wealth in banks and the history of gold, silver, and famine while considering how to manage his own money and supplies. He returned from the market and resumed work, with delivery still on schedule.

• Severus considered Gringotts a safer place for wealth than Swiss or New York banks and recalled that he had hidden Nazi gold bars in his Albanian bunker.
• The chapter recounted how silver, inflation, colonial trade, and famine shaped economies in Europe, China, and India.
• Severus recognized that the Chinese gang had lost out by taking silver bars instead of investing the money, and he resolved to conserve bullets and plan spending.
• After returning home from the market, Severus began working again and continued preparing the delivery.

Pomona read a document explaining historical conflicts, financial markets, and Lucius’s ruthless money-making, which Severus had used to choose a name for their organization. Severus proposed a vacation after the month’s Werewolf matter, but Pomona suggested they begin resting immediately.

• The document described how grain trading profited from war and famine, then compared the American Revolution with Japan’s economic rise and the collapse of its real estate bubble.
• The document explained why the yen could serve as a safe-haven currency and portrayed Lucius as a formidable manipulator of money who had earned Ministry favor through a donation to St Mungo’s Hospital.
• Severus told Pomona she could ask him directly to read documents instead of sneaking around, then suggested a vacation after the Werewolf matter was over.
• Pomona leaned close and offered Severus an unforgettable vacation, and he called her naughty as they drew closer in the quiet room.

The chapter traced how Robert stole Qing tea-growing knowledge for the East India Company, undermining Qing trade and the Huizhou merchants, then turned to Pomona’s reflections on recognition, beauty, and her relationship with Severus. Pomona woke beside her newlywed husband, angry at herself for sleeping with him and wondering why she had ever thought she was unworthy of him.

• The East India Company hired Robert to steal tea seedlings and recruit tea farmers, and he returned to India with both in 1850.
• The Company established Indian tea plantations, which captured much of the global market and weakened Qing exports and the Huizhou merchants.
• The narrator connected the loss of Chinese trade and intellectual property to Severus’s improved Wolfsbane Potion, for which Damocles Belby had received the honor.
• Pomona compared herself with Fleur Delacour and reflected that she had acted foolishly to gain attention.
• Pomona woke beside her newlywed husband, glared at him, and regretted having slept with the old bat.

Pomona read about Hu Xueyan, Zuo Zongtang, and the merchants whose rivalry helped undermine the Self-Strengthening Movement, then wondered whether she could live in a house made from coffin wood. Severus asked if she wanted to visit China, but after he retreated to his workshop, Pomona threw the magazine at his door and angrily whispered that she hated him.

• The account described Hu Xueyan’s rise through his ties to Wang Youling and Zuo Zongtang, and his role in raising funds for Zuo Zongtang’s Xinjiang campaign.
• Sheng Xuanhuai’s scheme ruined Hu Xueyan’s silk trade and triggered a run on his Fukang Money House, while the chapter contrasted their rivalry with the importance of business integrity and cooperation.
• The account compared Qing-era reliance on foreign weapons with attempts by Zhang Zhidong to produce the Hanyang Rifle, and linked internal rivalries to the failure of the Self-Strengthening Movement.
• Pomona wondered whether she would feel comfortable living in a house made from golden-thread nanmu, which she associated with coffins, and thought she would never share her husband with other women.
• Severus asked Pomona whether she wanted to go to China after seeing her stare at the travel magazine, then returned to his workshop when she asked where Lily would want to go on holiday.
• Pomona threw the magazine at Severus’s closed workshop door and whispered that she hated him.

The chapter examined how financial crises, education, and entrenched class divisions shaped the fates of merchants, military leaders, and ordinary people across history. It ended by arguing that cooperation, talent retention, and new sources of wealth were necessary to prevent old mistakes from recurring.

• The chapter explained that Hu Xueyan’s raw silk monopoly and the bank run that followed his losses left him without enough liquidity, while Zuo Zongtang depended on Hu’s funds for his Western Regions campaign.
• The chapter compared Japan’s real-estate bubble and foreign capital’s influence on banks with the risks ordinary investors faced when they followed market booms.
• The chapter traced class barriers from the Nine-Rank System and powerful clans to modern education, arguing that poor families had relied on study and military achievement to rise.
• The chapter described how Wu Shiyue funded Li Yuan, how Hu Xueyan backed Wang Youling, and how Chiang Kai-shek rose from a poor family to political power.
• The chapter used the Mouse Utopia experiment to describe social breakdown and argued that industrialized education and private tutoring deepened class divisions.
• The chapter compared merchants to soldiers in postwar financial conflict and warned that leaking trade secrets, pursuing private interests, and failing to retain talent could undermine a nation.

The chapter examined Japan’s speculative bubble and the American dispute over whether burning the flag was protected speech, criticizing the power of financial and political elites. It ended with Pomona comparing ordinary Americans to wizards marginalized under Voldemort and reflecting that human actions had caused their misery.

• Hanwa Kogyo’s foreign-exchange success encouraged Japanese companies to abandon manufacturing and speculate, while the government’s economic package poured more money into the growing bubble.
• The chapter described how financial elites, housing speculation, and the subprime mortgage system left ordinary Americans vulnerable to losing their homes and livelihoods.
• Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag at a protest in Dallas, and Texas authorities arrested and convicted him under a flag-desecration law.
• An appellate court overturned Johnson’s conviction, and the Supreme Court’s protection of flag burning provoked widespread public anger and efforts to pass a constitutional amendment.
• Pomona considered the hardship of ordinary Americans and compared them to Muggle-born and half-blood wizards excluded under Voldemort’s rule.

Pomona reflected on Muggle law, debt, and industry while reading the newspaper, then Severus decided to return to Hogwarts to see what Harry Potter was doing. Pomona agreed and went to change clothes.

• Pomona considered how Stand-Your-Ground laws and debt enforcement affected Muggles, and compared American society with historical examples.
• Pomona reflected on industrial development, education, and the dangers of speculation and relying on imported technology.
• Pomona put down the newspaper and said she could not help the Muggles she had been reading about.
• Severus emerged dressed in wizard's robes and said he wanted to return to Hogwarts to see what Harry Potter was doing.
• Pomona agreed and went to change clothes.

Pomona reflected on Ma Youjiang’s hidden ambition and the history of Chinese resistance to discrimination in America, especially the Yick Wo case. She then found Severus had delegated making wolfsbane silver bullets to Hogwarts’s House-elves, while he mocked Harry Potter.

• Pomona sensed that Ma Youjiang’s colorful clothes concealed ambition and danger.
• Pomona recalled the Dred Scott case, Chinese laborers’ treatment in America, and the legal fight against discriminatory laundry ordinances that ended in Yick Wo and Wo Lee’s victory.
• Severus had the House-elves make wolfsbane silver bullets, and they obeyed despite no longer being at Hogwarts under his authority.
• Pomona accused Severus of using his visit to Harry as an excuse to find someone else to do the work.
• Severus dismissed Harry as incompetent and insulted both him and his father, while Pomona rolled her eyes at his repeated mockery.

Pomona reflected on the different lives and social customs she had encountered and told Severus she wanted to leave their luxurious apartment for a quiet home in the countryside. As they discussed Galvin’s ambitions to rule the Aurors like a king, Severus made clear that he would never curry favor with powerful people.

• Pomona recalled how her views on House-elves had changed and how the pressure of living among Muggles had made her feel suffocated.
• Pomona and Severus shared a picnic at Hogwarts and looked toward Dumbledore’s tomb from a tower.
• Pomona told Severus she wanted to live in a northern farmer’s house near a forest and lake, and he readily agreed.
• Pomona asked how Severus would approach Harry about studying law, but Severus said Harry had more pressing problems and warned that Galvin wanted to turn the Aurors into his soldiers.
• Severus said he disliked the idea of living under Galvin’s rule and explained that he had never tried to curry favor with Dumbledore because he refused to submit to power.